Musical instruments of the string family have long been noted for the tonal beauty and intimate quality of their music. These instruments produce musical tones with a resonator or tone chamber that is energized by the vibrations of the oscillating strings.
With the present-day advent of electronics, various attempts have been made to produce stringed instruments having improved tonal characteristics and higher levels of sound intensity. A conventional electromechanical or electromagnetic sound transducer, used in conjunction with a vacuum tube amplifier and loudspeaker, is capable of giving any level of sound intensity desired, but the tonal quality of such instruments may be compromised in the process.
The beautiful tones which emanate from the stringed instruments are the result of string vibrations plus the modulation and added overtones introduced by the resonator. So, it is desirous to provide a system capable of modifying and introducing certain characteristics into the electrical output from the vibrating strings, or capable of modifying, in a predetermined manner, the energy produced by the loudspeaker, or capable of doing both. Accordingly, it is an object of this inventive subject matter to provide an apparatus and methods for fine tuning control of stringed musical instruments.
It has long been desired for guitarists and other stringed instrumentalists to play instruments that maintain their pitch over a long period of time, and preferably over the entire lifetime of the string. On the other hand, any automatic tuning device should not affect the purity, richness, tone, and crispness of the sound of the instrument, which can degrade if an active electromechanical device is connected to the strings. Several examples of tuning devices for stringed instruments have been described in the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,080,785 issued to Evans describes an electro tone modifying systems for stringed musical instruments.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,191,159 issued to Jordan describes an electrical stringed musical instrument.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,362 issued to Lieber describes an electric guitar with plastic construction.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,563 issued to Mirata describes an electronic tuning apparatus for an electronic stringed musical instrument.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,269 issued to Young Jr describes an -electric guitar with interior neck extension.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,095,797 issued to Zacaroli describes an automatic tone control for stringed musical instruments.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,680,431 issued to Vanden et al. describes a violin shoulder rest configured to mount a positionable microphone and to accommodate one or more electrical signal inputs.
Accordingly, there remains a continual need for improved apparatus and methods for a fine-tuning control, amplification and modification of sound from stringed musical instruments. Additionally, it would be desirous if the fine-tuning control can be achieved synchronously with the playing of the stringed musical instrument. It is to these and other improvements that preferred embodiments of the present inventive subject matter are generally directed.